Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Vacation Photos... Lots of 'em

Kara and I took our first trip to Europe since 2003 with a two-week trip to central Europe this past October. We stayed six days in Prague, two days in Bratislava, and five days in Vienna. We had expected that it would rain during our trip, but we were very pleased to encounter no rain whatsoever. Also, the temperature was great for the first week and only a little cold for the second week.

We had a wonderful time on our trip and I especially loved Prague and I would love to go back again some time. There was just so much to see in that charming city and it was very tourist-friendly. Although Bratislava didn't have as much to offer as Prague, it was a great place for a short visit and it served as a nice rest between the bigger cities. On the other hand, Vienna was a bit overwhelming. It's a fascinating city with lots to do, but perhaps it had too much to see and do and we really didn't know how to take it in for such a short visit. Also, unlike Prague, Vienna wasn't nearly as English-speaking tourist friendly; my assumption is that if your national language is spoken only in your tiny country (as it is in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia), you have to provide translations in English, but if your national language is German (as it is in Austria), you don't have to worry about tourists understanding things as much. In Prague, virtually all signs and directions were available in both English and Czech, but in Austria, English was rarely seen (except on menus).

I took more photos during this trip than I ever have before -- over 1800 -- and I just recently finished uploading most of them to my Flickr site. You can view them in my photostream or you can view them in the sets that I've created: